Yana Fenech: Fauvism.

Fauvism (Wild Beast)

Fauvism was a ground breaking technique. In the late 1800 to 1900 era the predominant technique was impressionism. Impressionism mainly based on painting outdoors to capture change in daylight using short quick brush strokes. Impressionism was made normal after Claude Monet’s; Impression Sunrise. Avid art followers were used to seeing soft colours and peaceful seas of impressionist artwork. At that era in time people appreciated impressionism and it was regarded as the best art at the time until a group of artists showed their work amongst the impressionists and post impressionists at an exhibition in 1905. Where an art critic (Louis Vauxcelles) of the time explained and described these new group of artists as; Les Fauvs, Wild Beasts. This gave these artists a new name for their art form; Fauvism and giving a start to this genre of art.

A Vibrant Style of Painting

Many times artists worked by applying the paint directly from the paint tubes and tubs without mixing or diluting the paint with anything. When it came to depicting a subject Fauvism left things simple but the colours where exaggerated. Many artists who adopted this style began to simplify the details of their paintings and adopted new vibrant colours that were usually not used on such depicted subjects.

The pioneers of Fauvism and best in their genre of art were Henri Matisse and Andrea Derain. Both artists broke away from the traditional methods and experimented and exaggerated with colours.

Matisse and Derain worked closely together for a period in time; together they created highly different paintings which were on the forefront of Fauvism. Derain was once sent to London to produce a series of paintings with the city as the subject, he managed to depict the city in a portrait that was very different to how others had done it previously, till today these London painting remain one of his most popular piece of work.

Andre Derain.